Descendants of emigrants visited the community of their ancestors 300 years later
A special visit to the Biebesheim Local History Museum attracted international interest: Leila and Brian Smith from Canada traveled to the community from which their emigrated almost 300 years ago deputy museum director and genealogist Thomas Schell , who organized a personal tour of the museum for the Canadian guests during their stay.
A trail leads back to 1724
back to 1724. Johann Dietrich Wicker , an ancestor of Leila Smith, emigrated with his family from Biebesheim to Hungary . Just two years later, he died in the small village of Kalazno , which at that time had only about 100 inhabitants. In Hungary, the family name changed over the generations to Wickert .
Johann Dietrich Wicker and his father were tenants of the Lusthausen estate , which was demolished in the 19th century in the Biebesheim district. A memorial plaque on the Lusthausen Bridge and its outline in aerial photographs still commemorate the former estate. Several generations later, descendants of the family emigrated from Hungary to Canada .
Guided tour of the museum and warm welcome
Thomas Schell guided the Smiths through the local history museum's exhibition, showing them documents and traces of their family history. He also explained that many descendants of the Wicker and Wickert families still live in Biebesheim today—including himself.
Hans-Georg Krings also to officially welcome the guests from Canada . At the end of the visit, Leila and Brian Smith signed the local history museum's guest book – a symbolic "return" of their family after 300 years.
(GROSS-GERAU – RED/PM)
